“In our own pathology centre?” Land all but squeaked.
“I’m afraid it’s worse, because it looks like an inside job. On that basis, we’re conducting an internal murder investigation with our own staff as suspects.”
“Good God, woman, does anyone else know about this?”
“No, sir. Not yet, at least. Thought I’d better tell you.”
“Then for heaven’s sake don’t tell anyone else. If word of this gets out, it will kill us. You’d better get Bryant and May back here at once. They’ll know what to do.”
Longbright chose to ignore the snub. “I can’t, sir. They’re stuck in a snowdrift on the edge of Dartmoor on their way to a spiritualists’ convention. I haven’t told them what’s happened yet. Do you want me to call them?”
Having to make spot decisions without the advice of a superior was the kind of situation Land dreaded. He worried a nail between his teeth, trying to think. If he turned down Faraday, the minister would be instantly suspicious, and would probably send Kasavian around to the unit to sniff out trouble.
“We daren’t tell them what’s happened,” he said finally. “The Home Office is sending Princess Beatrice of Connaught here for a full demonstration of the facilities. Kasavian’s doing it to embarrass and discredit us, but he doesn’t know the half of it. He thinks Arthur will be here to make a mess of things.
Imagine how thrilled he’ll be when he discovers the truth. They’re expecting to be shown a crime lab, not a crime scene. We can’t turn them down; it would be admitting defeat. There’s only one thing for it: Oswald’s investigation must be concluded before the Princess arrives. There must be no sign of anything untoward having happened.“
“I’m afraid it’s going to be a little more difficult than that, sir,” Longbright informed him. “Access to the morgue was strictly limited to those of us inside the unit, and you know what Finch was like, he pretty much upset everyone in the course of the last week, so our own staff members will have to be kept here under house arrest.”
“Suffering Jesus, if Kasavian finds out we can’t even solve a murder taking place on our own property, involving our own staff, he’ll make damned sure we’ll get shut down instantly, so that he can reallocate his funding elsewhere. To think of the things I’ve survived here, from Bryant blowing up the building to carpenters falling through the floor-you have to sort out this mess.”
“I’ve already grounded everyone at the unit until we have a clearer picture of what happened,” she informed him.
“Good.” He rose to leave. “Well, I suppose that’s a start. You can fill me in on the rest in the morning.”
“I’m afraid that means you as well, sir. You also had access to the morgue keys.”
Land’s eyebrows rose to where his hairline would have been had he still owned hair. “That’s outrageous! Oswald and I were old friends. Our wives went crown green bowling together.”
“You refused to take back his resignation. Did he threaten you in any way? Place you in a difficult position?”
“I will not be interrogated by my own staff sergeant!” Land roared, clearly mortified. “And you have no right to keep me here.”
“I’m afraid I do, sir. I’ve been appointed acting head in Mr. Bryant’s absence-he inserted the clause in my contract when you renegotiated it-so you’d better make yourself comfortable, because I think it’s going to be a long night.”
Longbright left the sputtering department head and returned to her office to call the detectives. May answered on the second ring. “Things are pretty bad here, Janice,” he said before she could speak. “I don’t know how long it’s going to be before we can get free.” There was a hesitation on the other end of the line. “You’re holding something back from us. What’s happened?” He knew instinctively that something was wrong.
“It’s Oswald,” she told him, explaining the circumstances of the pathologist’s death. “This is starting to look like an internecine problem. I think I know what to do, but I need your advice on how to go about it.”
“You’d better tell us everything Giles and Dan have found since the body was discovered,” said May. “Poor old Oswald. I’ll see what we can do to help. After all, it’s not as if we’re going anywhere.”
Just then, Banbury stuck his head around the door.
“Call him back,” he told Longbright. “I need to talk to you right now. I think we have a lead.”
22
“Poor, poor Oswald,” said Bryant, shunting down into his overcoat and ruminatively sucking the last of the Humbugs. “What a terrible thing to happen.”
“You two spent decades being vile to each other. Don’t tell me you’ve had a change of heart.”
“No, of course not; he was perfectly disgusting and managed to upset everyone he ever met, but that doesn’t mean I’d wish him dead. They can rule out suicide. Oswald had last-minute regrets about his retirement, but he’d paid off his mortgage and was about to buy a new car. I know, because I lent him the deposit. That’s not the action of a man about to kill himself.”
“Come on, Arthur, you know that room. If the windows are sealed, there’s no other way in or out except by the main door.”
“Then someone borrowed a key and copied it, which makes his death a premeditated act. The corridor outside is secured at the main entrance by a code panel, but you’d only have to Watch from the road to see someone key in the numbers and memorise them. Or you simply go in as someone else is entering and wait in the toilets until the coast is clear. Kids do it all the time. Oswald used to complain about them leaving lager cans in the hall. No, access to the building isn’t the issue; it’s motive.”
“You said he upset everyone.”
“Yes, but you don’t plan someone’s death just because they were a bit grumpy with you. I’m talking about a real motive, and I can think of at least three. One, he might have been attacked by somebody trying to get back at the unit. Two, he could have surprised someone in the act of stealing drugs. Three, there’s the possibility that his death was the result of action taken by a disgruntled member of the public‘
“I don’t understand.”
“What did Oswald do for a living? Pronounce upon the dead. Anyone who sets themselves up as a public judge will always have enemies. We should try the more obvious routes first. Tell Dan to run an inventory and check to see if anything is missing from the room. It would have to be something worth killing for. Of course, there’s another explanation…‘ He clattered the boiled sweet around his false teeth, shrinking ever further into his coat. May waited patiently for him to resume.
“Well?” he asked.
“Oh, you wouldn’t like it,” said Bryant annoyingly. “I was thinking of Edgar Allan Poe. Let Janice and the others go through the obvious routes of investigation first. It’ll do them good to try and sort this out without our help.”
“Our help?” May repeated. “Should I remind you that we are marooned in the middle of nowhere? We’re not placed to offer anyone our help.”
“Rubbish,” countered Bryant. “We have mobiles, satellites, cameras and the Internet, don’t we? All those technological marvels you’re forever banging on about. Now’s the time to put your money where your mouth is, matey. Let’s see how wonderful they really are.” Bryant folded his arms with a smug smile. “You’ve got your PDSA on you, whatever it’s called, your Raspberry; let’s see you use it.”
“You mean my PDA. The PDSA is the People’s Dispensary for Sick Animals. And it’s a BlackBerry.”
“You can start by giving them a tip,” said Bryant. “Tell Janice there’s an old lady who lives opposite the entrance to the Bayham Street Morgue, number thirty-five I think, first floor. She’s in a wheelchair and hardly ever goes out. She’ll probably be able to provide a list of visitors for the entire day. Then you can give me the keys to the back door of the van. Given the circumstances, I think we might open the hamper and make a start on the veal-and-egg pies.”